Apparatus for feeding fibrous materials



Mariih 1958 J. FLEISSNER ETAL 2,825,936

' APPARATUS FOR FEEDING FIBROUS MATERIALS Filed May 28, 1956 APPARATUSFOR FEEDING FIBROUS MATERIALS Johann Fleissner and Gerold Fieissner,Egelsbach, Germany, assignors to Fleissner & Sohn Maschinenfabrik,Egelsbach, Germany, a German firm Application May 28, 1956, Serial No.587,782 Claims priority, application Germany June 28, 1955 4 Claims.(Cl. 19-105) The present invention relates to an apparatus for feedingloose fibrous material to a machine in which such material is to betreated.

The loose fibers are usually fed to such machines either manually or bymeans of a simple mechanical conveyor, or by the cylinder of a cardingmechanism, all depending upon the kind and consistency of the fibers tobe treated. Thus, for example, only special types of fibers may bepassed through a carding mechanism before being dried, carbonized ortreated otherwise. Long-staple fibers, such as wool, for instance, mightbe damaged if passed through a carding mechanism. The single feedingmechanisms known prior to this invention for feeding all different kindsof fibrous materials to the respective processing machine thereforealways required the removal of the carding mechanism before a sensitivematerial could be worked upon. Such removal of the carding mechanism,however, always entailed a considerable waste of time which was annoyingespecially if the type or quality of the fibrous material was changedfrequently.

The present invention relates to a feeding mechanism which permits thetype of feed to be changed very quickly and without effort so that thefibrous material may be supplied to the respective processing machineeither by hand, by a simple mechanical conveyor, or by the cardingmechanism. 1

Another object of the invention is to provide a feeding atent anism,from which it will then be thrown upon the lower belt to pass to theprocessing machine.

Such pivoting device for pivoting the upper belt into or out ofoperation may obviously be of various designs, the most convenient andelficient, however, being one in which the conveyor belt passes over tworollers, one of which is located closely adjacent to the cardingmechanism, while the other roller which is spaced therefrom is connectedby a suitable bar to a point either at or near the axis of the firstroller, and mounted at such point so as to be pivotable upwardly to asubstantial vertical position by means of a simple lever. Thus, whenthe'upper belt is pivoted to its lower, substantially horizontalposition, it will convey the fibers to the carding mechanism, while whensuch belt is pivoted upwardly, it will be com pletely out of the line offall of the fibrous material which is thus able to drop directly uponthe lower belt.

When the upper belt will thus be pivoted to its upward position, it willalso be out of the way so as to permit the fibrous material to beapplied by hand directly upon the lower belt leading to the processingmachine. In such event, the two other conveyor belts may be stoppedentirely.

By the simple operation of a single lever, it will thus be possible toswitch quickly from one to another of the three different feedingmethods if a change in the type or quality of fibrous material shouldalso render a different type of feeding either necessary or desirable. I

Further objects, features, and advantages of the pres ent invention willbe apparent from the following de-. tailed description thereof which isto be read with reference to the accompanying drawing which diagrammatismechanism which may be converted from one type of 1 feed to anothermerely by the manual operation of a simple lever.

Aninventive feature of the new feeding mechanism broadly consists in theprovision of three conveying devices, one of which is designed to pickup and convey the fibrous material to either of the other two device s,one of which leads directly to the respective processing machine, whilethe other first passes the fibers through a carding mechanism.

More specifically, it is a feature of the invention to provide threeconveyors of a suitable type, for example, belt conveyors, the belts ofwhich may, if desired, be of the corrugated or ribbed variety, and todispose these conveyors in such a relation to each other that the firstconveyor may pick up the loose fibrous material, elevate the same to ahigher point, and then allow it to drop in a free fall upon either ofthe two other conveyor belts. In order to permit such selection, thesetwo belts are disposed one above the other, the upper one leading to thecarding mechanism, while the lower belt leads directly to the processingmachine. The upper belt is provided with a very simple device to permitit to be pivoted into or out of the line of fall of the fibrous materialdropping from the elevated point. Thus, when the upper belt is pivotedto one position, the fibrous material will drop past such belt anddirectly upon the lower belt to be conveyed thereby to the processingmachine, while when the upper belt is pivoted to the other position, itwill receive the material and pass the same to the carding mechcallyillustrates one preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawing, a drum 10 of a willow or sieve drum drier or the like isto be supplied with a fibrous material, for example, by a conveyor belt11. A cardingmechanism including a cylinder 12. is mounted above thecon: veyor belt ll'and supplied with the fibrous material, for example,by means of a conveyor belt 13. A further elevating conveyor belt 14 ismounted in front of conveyor belt 13 and passes upwardly over a roller20 which .is disposed above conveyor belt 13. Thus, belt 14 will pick upthe loose fibers at its lower end and lift the same to its upper end onroller 20., from which they are, dropped upon belt- 13 which then feedsthe fibers to cylinder 12 of the carding mechanism from which they arethen thrown upon the conveyor belt 11 which finallypasses the.

According to the invention, conveyor belt 13 which may, if desired, becorrugated or ribbed, is mounted on an outer roller 15 and an innerroller 19. Roller 15 is mounted on a lever 17 which may be pivoted aboutan axis 16. A handle 18 may be provided to pivot lever 17 together withconveyor belt 13. If roller 15, together with belt 13, is pivotedupwardly, as indicated in dot-anddash lines, the fibers will thenby-pass the carding cylin der 12 and drop from roller 20 directly uponconveyor belt 11. Thus, by simply pivoting conveyor belt 13, it will bepossible to eliminate the operation of the carding mechanism 12 and topass the fibers from conveyor 14 directly to drum 1t). Conveyor belt 11may also be disposed so as to allow the fibrous material to be placedthereon by hand, in which case conveyor 14 may be stopped. In thismanner it will be possible to use either one of the three possible typesof applying the fibers and to switch over very quickly from one type tothe other, depending upon the kind and consistency of the fibrousmaterial. If a rather sensitive material is to be treated, belt 13 maythen simply be pivoted upwardly so that the fibers will no longer be fedto the carding mechanism 12 but directly to belt 11 leading to. thewillow or sieve drum drier 10.

Obviously, if desired, roller 15 may also be mounted so as to bepivotable about the axis of roller 19 adjacent to carding mechanism 12.

Although our invention has been illustrated and describe-d withreference to the preferred embodiments thereof, we wish to haven'tunderstood thatit'is in noway limited to the'details'of suchembodiments, but iscapable of numerous modifications within :the scopeofthe appended claims.

Having thus fully disclosed our invention, what we claim is:

1. A selective feeding mechanism, for feeding loose fibrous material toa fiber processing machine, comprising a lower conveyor belt, carding"means above and spaced from said lower belt, an upper-conveyor belt infront of said, carding means for feeding said material to said cardingmeans, driving means for moving said belts in a direction toward saidmachine, means for conveying said. material to a point above said beltsand for dropping said material upon one of said, belts when in the lineof fall of said material from said point, and means for quickly movingsaid upper belt into and out of said line of fall, whereby said materialdrops upon said upper belt when moved into said line of fall so as toconvey said material to said carding 'means to pass therethrongh andthen to fall upon said lower belt to be conveyed to said machine, andwhereby said material drops upon said lower belt when said upper belt ismoved out of said line of fall of the material.

2. A: selective feeding mechanism for feeding loose fibrous material to:a fiber processing machine, comprising a lower conveyor belt, cardingmeans disposed in a listed position above andspaced from said lowerbelt, an upper conveyor belt normally disposed in the same plane 'as andin front of said carding means for feedingsaid :material to said cardingmeans, driving means for moving said belts in a direction toward saidmachine, means for conveying said material to a point above :said beltsand for dropping said material upon one of said belts when in the lineof fall of said material from said point, and mechanical means forquickly moving said upper belt into and out of said line of fall,whereby-said material drops upon said upper belt when moved into saidline of fall so as to convey said material to said carding means to passtherethrongh and then to fall upon said lower belt to be conveyed to"said machine, andwhereby saidkmaterial drops'npon said lower belt whensaid upper belt ismoved out'o'f said line of all of the material.

, "3'. A selective feeding mechanism for feeding loose fibrous: materialto a fib'e'r processingrnachine, comprising a lower conveyor belt,carding means disposed in a fixed position above and spaced from saidlower belt, an upper conveyor belt normally disposed in the same planeas and in front of said carding means for feeding said material to saidcarding means, driving means for moving said belts in a direction towardsaid machine, means for conveying said material to a point above saidbelts and for dropping said material upon one of said belts when in theline of fall of said material from said point, and means for pivot-ingsaid upper belt about a fixed point into and out of said line of fall,whereby said material drops upon said upper belt when pivoted into saidline of fall so as to convey said material to said carding means to passtherethrough and then to fall upon saidl'owerbelt to be conveyed to saidmachine, and whereby said material drops upon said lower belt when saidupper belt is pivoted out of said line of fall of the material.

4. A selective feeding mechanism for feeding loose fibrous material to afiber processing machine, comprisinga lower conveyor belt, carding meansdisposed in a fixed position above and spaced from said lower belt, anupper conveyor belt disposed in the same plane as and in front of saidcarding means for feeding said material to said carding means, means forconveying said material to a point above said belts and for droppingsaid material upon one of said belts when in the "line of fall of saidmaterial from said point, a pair of rollers each rotatable about a shaftfor supporting said upper belt, means for connecting said shafts at aspaced relation to each other, means for pivotally mounting saidconnecting means at a point near said carding means for pivotal movementof said belt into and out ofsaid line of fall of the material, a leveron said connecting means at said pivot point for pivoting saidconnecting means and said belt, and driving means for moving said beltsin a directi'on toward said machine, whereby said material dropsuponsaid upper belt when pivoted downwardly into said line of fall so asto convey said material to said carding means to pass therethrough andthen to fall upon said lower belt to be conveyed to said machine, andwhereby saidmaterial drops upon said lower belt when said upper belt ispivoted upwardly out of said line of fall of the material.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS847,230 Brockt Mar. 12, 1907 849,689. Kleven Apr. 9, 1 907 1,227,072Riley et a1. May 22, 1917 1,321,784 Bird Nov. 11, 1919 1,876,194 WuestSept. 6, 1932

